Woman Wins $5,000 For Letting The Internet Name Her Baby

Natasha Hill, a 26-year-old teacher from the San Diego area, has been chosen as the winner of a promotional contest with Babynames.net. Hill was picked out of a pool of 80 applicants to let the internet name her baby. From the Baby Names contest page:

Will YOUR Baby’s Name Have National Appeal?? From all of us at Belly Ballot, we are so excited to announce our national “Belly Branding” contest. One lucky pregnant couple will win $5000 in exchange for letting the entire world decide their baby’s name.

3. Babynames.net has a service called Belly Ballot, which allows parents-to-be to make a list of favorite names, then let friends and families vote on what the baby should be named.

5. This particular contest, however, allows everyone — not just invited friends and family — to vote on names.

The baby names that appear on the ballot are based “on current trending names and Advertiser Sponsorships,” Belly Ballot then selects which names appear on the ballot. Voting will commence on March 18 through March 22 and then the winner names their baby whichever name gets the most votes. Which sounds really like the most frightening thing ever.

Hill is not too worried about ending up with a baby with a strange name, believing the people doing the online voting will do the right thing:

“I think people will do the right thing and vote for something unique and nice.”

7. Let’s just hope that the internet does a better job of naming Natasha Hill’s baby than it has in the past: